Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Adams gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $222K, 3.3 years of the Watertown metro’s $66K median household income. It grades A− overall, 174th among New York's 745 graded towns. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 92% of U.S. towns, with 2 places on the National Register. Its National Register listings include Adams Commercial Historic District and Smith-Ripley House. Adams’ going rate for rent is $742 a month, where New York’s towns sit at $1,103 a month and U.S. towns at $1,185 a month. The biggest park or preserve is Honeyville Wildlife Management Area, at 109 acres.
Where Adams beats most towns.
Adams Commercial Historic District
Census counts: 2,467 in 1820, 4,973 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1864 and 4 maps from 1893 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New York), ordered by how far Adams is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Adams, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Aug 3, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Adams.
Adams pairs an A− overall with homes cheaper than the New York norm, gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns and has commutes shorter than most of New York.
Adams grades A− overall with a typical home of about $222K, below the New York typical value; only 33 of the 89 New York towns graded A− or better can say that.
A typical home in Adams is worth about $222,000, up 3.7% in a year, 58% below the New York typical home. 73% of Adams households are owner-occupiers.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its public schools are run by the South Jefferson Central School District. Two of the 3 schools are below, and why each made the list. The largest public high school is South Jefferson High School, with 574 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maynard P Wilson Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 477 | C |
| South Jefferson High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 574 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
The average commute for its 1,796 working residents takes 23.2 minutes, against 32.6 across New York.
Just 9% of Adams’s working residents have a job in town. The top destinations are Watertown (33%), Watertown (10%) and Hounsfield (3%). For residents locally, the share who live below the poverty line is 7.3%. Half the trips to work are shorter than 12 miles.
| Adams | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 7.3% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 9.9% | 12% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
One flood insurance claim has been paid in Adams since 2026. Compared with 72% of U.S. communities, expected storm and flood damage locally is lower. Of the losses FEMA expects locally, 76% come from inland flooding and 6% from cold waves. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Adams after 2 declared disasters, most recently in 2014.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The Watertown weather station, 13 miles away, records that 116 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 98% of U.S. towns.
July afternoons reach 80° and January nights drop to 11°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
In Adams, two in five adults sleep under 7 hours. This New York town does better than the New York average on 6 of 32 CDC measures and worse on 7.
| Adams | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 17% | 16% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 33% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 37% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 32% | 33% |
| What stands out | Adams | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 12.4% | 17.2% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 5.8% | 7.9% |
| More adults with obesity | 38.2% | 28.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Honeyville Wildlife Management Area | — | 109 |
| 2. Gould's Corners State Forest | — | 4 |
| 3. Gary Tyner Memorial Field | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Adams
About 5 of every 100 Adams residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across New York.
Where Adams’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
2 places in Adams on the National Register of Historic Places.
8 notable people were born in Adams.
Town in New York, United States
Adams is a town in Jefferson County, New York, United States. Named after President John Adams, the town had a population of 5,143 at the 2010 census. The town contains a village also named Adams. The village and town are south of Watertown.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Adams.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | #174 | A− | B+ | — | B | B |
| Rodman | — | — | B− | — | B | B− |
| Henderson | — | — | B− | — | C | B− |
| Hounsfield | #513 | C | D | — | B | B |
| Ellisburg | #430 | B− | B+ | — | B− | B− |
| Lorraine | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Rodman and Henderson have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Adams, Rodman, Henderson, Hounsfield and Ellisburg report no FBI crime data of their own. Lorraine isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Adams with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Adams grades A− overall, better than 78% of U.S. towns and #174 of 745 in New York. It grades B for health and B for schools.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.
8 notable people were born here, including Julius Sterling Morton and Bruce Cooper Clarke.
